Alexei stopped at a store to buy flowers.
And then he parked at PDX and worried the stems of those flowers, pacing in front of the terminal until Ben was there, with his eye crinkles and his hair in a bun, a gap-toothed smile that was just for him.
***
When they got to Alexei’s apartment, a one-bedroom in a small complex in the Hawthorne neighborhood, the routine was always the same.
Carry Ben’s bags to the door.
Open door; try to act chill.
Drop bags. Close door. Wait half a second for Ben to push him back against it.
Let Ben have his way with him.
It was Alexei’s favorite routine in the world.
This time, he asked the question first.
“What do you want,” he asked between kisses, his hands roaming underneath Ben’s shirt, whatever small talk they’d been making in the car already far away, the pads of Alexei’s fingers familiarizing themselves with Ben’s skin once again, coming home to it.
“Nuh-uh.” Ben nipped at Alexei’s neck. “You know the rules. Your city, you get to choose first.”
“But it’s going to be your city, too, soon,” Alexei said, already breathless. “I want to pretend it already is. You choose.”
Ben leaned back to look at him, contemplating. The corner of his mouth tilted.
“I mean, if you’re going to twist my arm about it. I want the chair.”
Alexei’s stomach swooped. Ben leaned back in.
“Me on your lap.” He completed the request in a whisper, his lips brushing the shell of Alexei’s ear, making him shiver.
The chair was a little physically difficult, far from the luxuries of a king bed. Oversized and sitting in the corner of the living room next to the bookshelf, Alexei had purchased it at a vintage store two years prior. It was the one thing in the room that didn’t come from IKEA, that allowed Alexei to feel like he could be hip. Maybe.
Previously, it had been Alexei’s reading chair.
Now, even when Ben wasn’t there, Alexei could barely sit in it without squirming.
Clothing was dispensed with in due haste, and soon, Ben was in Alexei’s lap, skin on skin, mouths everywhere they could reach.
More tender moments would come later, before the out-of-towner had to return home. But post-airport-pickup sex was always an almost humorously fast, deliriously hot affair, and Alexei loved the clear boundaries of it all, the mutually understood consent that they each needed release as quickly as possible.
Alexei would miss this urgency, on the off chance it went away once they lived in the same place. Even though it was hard imagining that now, Alexei still chasing Ben’s mouth as he grabbed for the lube. He couldn’t quite picture any scenario where he wouldn’t relish ripping Ben’s clothes off, making his mouth drop open and his eyes go glassy, when given the chance.
“Lex,” Ben breathed as he sank down onto him, “I missed you.”
Alexei leaned forward, kissing Ben’s chest, twirling his tongue around Ben’s nipples, groaning as Ben worked himself over him again and again.
“You’re so beautiful,” Alexei murmured, a hand digging into Ben’s hip, “Ben. I love you.”
“So fucking much,” Ben panted, moving faster, hands clutching at the back of the chair behind Alexei’s head. “God. So good. Fucking want this all the time.Fuck.”
“Same,” Alexei said, and Ben laughed for half a breath until Alexei took his dick in hand, wrapping his fist lightly around the base.
“Lex,” he grunted, hips bucking. “Don’t—tease—need—yes, like that, just that,Lex.”
“Missed you,” Lex mumbled, starting to lose coherent thought, everything crashing toward that place, constricting, hard and bright. “Te amo, Ben,Ben, my—”
